DBWI: Gunpowder invented

What if somebody,let's say the Chinese in let's say,around 908 would invent a powder that can be ignited and exploded? Let's call it gunpowder.How would our world would be changed by then? Surely such an invention before the discovery of nitroglicerin should be in the ASB section but how would such an invention affect the Medieval and early modern war? I imagine China would be more sucessful against both the Arab and the Mongols and maybe the Fifty years war between France and England would have been shorter with this substance instead of swords and arrows and the colonisation of the old world would have gone differently.
 
Gunpowder was invented by the Chinese at 603 AD.
OOC: It's called DBWI!!! It's where instead of that happening and we wonder WI that didn't happen we look at it in a world where it didn't happen and we wonder WI it did.
 
Well, recent experiments have shown that sulfur would work well in such a mixture.

Though whether anyone could do anything with it is another story. I can see it put onto catapults or used as some kind of pit-trap, but what other use would there be? Stick it onto an arrow or a bolt?
 
What about using the gunpowder like a steam engine's piston? The explosion might be strong enough to launch a stone. Still, the thing would have so many disadvantages: it would have to be heavy to keep its operator from getting killed, it would be hard to aim, tedious to fire and would probably require a bunch of people just to carry the explosive powder around. Might as well stick with traditiopnal weapons. Easier to use and won't explode in your face.
 
What if somebody,let's say the Chinese in let's say,around 908 would invent a powder that can be ignited and exploded? Let's call it gunpowder.How would our world would be changed by then? Surely such an invention before the discovery of nitroglicerin should be in the ASB section but how would such an invention affect the Medieval and early modern war? I imagine China would be more sucessful against both the Arab and the Mongols and maybe the Fifty years war between France and England would have been shorter with this substance instead of swords and arrows and the colonisation of the old world would have gone differently.

OOC: Are you asking, "No gunpowder period?" If so, this should be in the ASB section.
 
OOC: Are you asking, "No gunpowder period?" If so, this should be in the ASB section.
Well,from an alternate point of view probably yes,but as gunpowder is an historical invention,and they inventtors in China never really had bothered to use it for much more than firework i don't think it is too ASB to not discover/not use it.
 
What about using the gunpowder like a steam engine's piston? The explosion might be strong enough to launch a stone. Still, the thing would have so many disadvantages: it would have to be heavy to keep its operator from getting killed, it would be hard to aim, tedious to fire and would probably require a bunch of people just to carry the explosive powder around. Might as well stick with traditiopnal weapons. Easier to use and won't explode in your face.
Yes but don't you feel traditional weapons are a bit outdated? After all,we are already using nitroglycerin since 1864 and sing it for millitary puposes since 1901.
 
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